Should gun control be revisited?

A look at the Bushmaster .223-caliber rifle, which was legally owned by the mother of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter Adam Lanza.

LOWELL -- Alex Galasso is a gun owner.

The 26-year-old Lowell resident, along with the rest of the country, said he remembers watching in horror on Dec. 14 as the death toll at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., kept rising.

When it was all over, 20 children and six school employees lost their lives in the massacre, along with the suicidal 20-year-old gunman and his 52-year-old mother.

Galasso said he doesn't blame the carnage on the guns.

"The gun laws we have work, but only if the owner of the gun is responsible and keeps it locked up," Galasso said as he waited for a train Saturday at the Gallagher Transit Terminal.

Galasso's reflections came two days after President Barack Obama called for a ban on assault weapons and ammunition clips that allow for rapid firing of bullets.

LOWELL RESIDENT ALEX GALASSO: Gun laws that we have work.

On Friday, the National Rifle Association called for armed officers to be stationed at every American public school rather than any tightening of gun-ownership laws.

Ban as many assault weapons as you want, noted Galasso, but that won't change whether gun owners are responsible. He recalled last month's incident in Ontario, Canada, in which former Boston Bruin Stan Jonathan allegedly fired a .270 Weatherby Magnum Mark-5, one of the most powerful hunting rifles in the world, into a wooded area, allegedly killing a man.

Jonathan, according to multiple news reports, said he was hunting for deer.

"It's all up to the gun owner," Galasso said about whether more stringent laws on assault weapons would prevent more tragedies in the future.

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Lowell resident Angelino Mendez, 22, does not own a gun. He was also waiting for transportation Saturday at Gallagher. Like Galasso, Mendez placed responsibility squarely on gun owners. Trigger locks were invented for a reason, he said.

Galasso pointed out that most police departments provide free trigger locks to gun owners. The locks function similarly to a bicycle lock, except for the fact that one involves chaining a wheel and the other involves chaining a trigger.

"Guns are not the only problem, but it's telling that all the kids in China survived."

Her husband, an Ohio native who also declined to have his name printed, said he was taken aback by Friday's statement from Wayne LaPierre, NRA president, proposing armed school guards.

"He's a gun-marketing machine," he said of LaPierre. "It's funny because this is a group whose members traditionally oppose more government spending, yet he's calling for schools to hire armed cops."

In Tyngsboro, Brenda Babcock was busy helping Tyngsboro Girl Scouts brave frigid temperatures to sell cookies in the parking lot of the Middlesex Road post office. Babcock, a mother of three ranging in age from 13 to 16, said the problem lies not with creating new gun laws, but enforcing the laws that are already on the books.

LOWELL RESIDENT ANGELINO MENDEZ: Doubts more laws would help.

"Everyone should have a right to carry, but automatics and assault weapons should not be so readily available," she said. "You don't want the bad guys to have bigger guns than the police."

Babcock said her children have all participated in firearm-safety training courses. The rule in her house is that nobody is allowed to shoot at living creatures. Heading to the rifle range is fine.

Tracie Looney, a Tyngsboro mother with a 13-year-old daughter and a 6-year-old son, said she was shocked when she saw a news report about a Texas gun range that promotes itself as a great place to host birthday parties. Looney was referring to a string of stories dating back to last spring. The stories initially focused on one shooting range. However, follow-up reports discovered that shooting ranges hosting birthday parties for children are not uncommon.

"These are children who are so small that their feet can't even touch the ground when they're sitting at the table," Looney said.

Shannon Silva, a Lowell native who lives in South Boston, chimed in via Facebook. She said that guns winding up in the wrong hands are happening more often. She does not own a gun but said gun control is a tough issue because "there are people who hunt and have firearms the legal and proper way."

"I have mixed emotions," she wrote. "I'm not for weapons but I try to look at things from all points of view.

"But this shooting that happened last week, I just can't get past it."

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